Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Map 1 The United Nations Partition Plan, November 1947
- Map 2 Arab settlements abandoned in 1948–9
- Map 3 Jewish settlements established in 1948–9
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction to the revised edition
- 1 Background: a brief history
- 2 The idea of ‘transfer’ in Zionist thinking before 1948
- 3 The first wave: the Arab exodus, December 1947 – March 1948
- 4 The second wave: the mass exodus, April–June 1948
- 5 Deciding against a return of the refugees, April–December 1948
- 6 Blocking a return
- 7 The third wave: the Ten Days (9–18 July) and the second truce (18 July–15 October)
- 8 The fourth wave: the battles and exodus of October–November 1948
- 9 Clearing the borders: expulsions and population transfers, November 1948–1950
- 10 Solving the refugee problem, December 1948 – September 1949
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
6 - Blocking a return
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Map 1 The United Nations Partition Plan, November 1947
- Map 2 Arab settlements abandoned in 1948–9
- Map 3 Jewish settlements established in 1948–9
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction to the revised edition
- 1 Background: a brief history
- 2 The idea of ‘transfer’ in Zionist thinking before 1948
- 3 The first wave: the Arab exodus, December 1947 – March 1948
- 4 The second wave: the mass exodus, April–June 1948
- 5 Deciding against a return of the refugees, April–December 1948
- 6 Blocking a return
- 7 The third wave: the Ten Days (9–18 July) and the second truce (18 July–15 October)
- 8 The fourth wave: the battles and exodus of October–November 1948
- 9 Clearing the borders: expulsions and population transfers, November 1948–1950
- 10 Solving the refugee problem, December 1948 – September 1949
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
Summary
In the course of 1948 and the first half of 1949, a number of processes definitively changed the physical and demographic face of Palestine. Taken collectively, they steadily rendered the possibility of a mass refugee return more and more remote until, by mid-1949, it became virtually inconceivable. These processes were the gradual destruction of the abandoned Arab villages, the cultivation or destruction of Arab fields and the share-out of the Arab lands to Jewish settlements, the establishment of new settlements, on abandoned lands and sites and the settlement of Jewish immigrants in empty Arab housing in the countryside and in urban neighbourhoods. Taken together, they assured that the refugees would have nowhere, and nothing, to return to.
These processes occurred under the protective carapace of the Haganah\IDF's periodically reiterated policy of preventing the return of refugees across the lines, including by fire, and of the repeated bouts of warfare between the Israeli and Arab armies, which effectively curtailed the movement of civilians near the often fluid front lines. At the same time, these processes were natural and integral, major elements in the overall consolidation of the State of Israel. They were not, at least initially, geared or primarily geared to blocking the return of the refugees. They began in order to meet certain basic needs of the new State. Some of the processes, such as the destruction of the villages and the establishment of new settlements along the borders, were dictated in large part by immediate military needs.
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- The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited , pp. 341 - 413Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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